The story concerns Jefferson Smith (played by James Stewart), a hokey, idealistic youth leader who is appointed to the U.S. Senate by his state’s political authorities on the assumption that he will be a pliable stooge. However, when he proposes a national youth camp on the site of a crooked land deal he was expected to approve, his benefactors—as well as the state’s senior senator (Claude Rains)—turn against him. Disillusioned by the corruption of Washington, Smith nearly leaves town but is persuaded by his secretary (Jean Arthur) to mount an impassioned challenge to the system in the form of a marathon filibuster. In the popular climactic scene, one of the few in film history that hinges on a legislative tactic, Smith successfully exposes the attempted graft and wins the day.

The unflattering depiction of government officials so infuriated real-life legislators that there were calls for the film to be banned. For its portrayal of American political corruption, it was called anti-American and communist; some deemed it propaganda that aided the efforts of the Axis countries at the start of World War II. Notably, Joseph P. Kennedy, then U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom, sought to suppress its release abroad.

James Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), directed by Frank …

Critics and audiences responded far differently, and the inspiring, heartwarming film became a box-office hit in the United States and garnered 11 Academy Award nominations. Stewart would win the best actor Oscar the following year for his work in The Philadelphia Story, but many consider his role in Mr. Smith the best performance of his career. The film’s essential belief in the power of democracy was highlighted when, in 1942, several cinemas in France chose it as the final English-language motion picture to be shown before a Nazi-ordered ban was imposed.

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), one of the most Capraesque of the director’s films, was the story of a freshman senator from Montana who uproots pork-barrel corruption in the U.S. Senate at the risk of his own career. Even more than Longfellow Deeds, the aptly named Jefferson Smith (James Stewart) is the epitome of the Capra everyman who refuses to compromise his...

...by the moviegoing public. Stewart was loaned to Columbia for two Frank Capra films that proved pivotal in his career: You Can’t Take It with You (1938) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), which brought him his first Oscar nomination for his portrayal of a shy, idealistic young senator fighting corruption in Congress. He won an Oscar the...